European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                After 10 years love canal remains virtually a ghost suburb by Sam Howe verhoven new York times n that Day 10 years ago. Joann Hale was seven and a Hall months pregnant and crying Livo a baby on the living room floor of her Homo on he project was several years in planning. In 1880, the prussian adage my of Archile Clure in Berlin announced a Competition to design the new Frankfurt Central station. With a first prize of 6.000 Marks in january 1831 the Winner was announced Hermann Eggerl. Master architect at the University of Suras Bourg later that year site preparation was begun and on May Zub 18b3, the Cornerstone was Laid work on the massive project continued for the next five years up to and including the night of  of the Homes have been demolished or boarded up. Tho evidence of the few people who decided they would not leave makes the Quill streets All Iho More Erie a neatly manicured Lawn amid a sea of weeds and Tail grass a tone car parked on the Block. Bui White the future of love canal is in doubt the stale s decision on whether the area can be declared habitable delayed Lor years by scientific controversies. Is now due in september the Mark of its past is Clear. Discoveries of Loxly waste at love canal in 1978 traumatized the neighbourhood and alarmed the nation. Within two years nearly All of the 1,000 families who lived there sold their houses to he government and moved away and Congress established a multimillion Doltar program known As the superfund to clean up hazardous waste Sites. Love canal a neighbourhood Buill atop 21.800 tons of chemical waste deposited in a ditch was in Iho first group of silos on he list Loday there Are about 1,000 Olshef Pri Only Sites nationwide and about 25,000 others classified As potential Sites. Despite the sense of urgency thai accompanied the creation of the superfund Only a handful of the dumps has been sufficiently cleaned up to warrant removal irom the Lisl. Environmental officials have largely attributed 1h s to the complexities of the process while critics have blamed incompetence. Among its legacies love canal will Likely Long endure As a National Symbol of a  exercise a sense of concern for Mure  said or. David axe Rod commissioner of the stale health department. Axelrod who in 1978 was the director of he detail men s division of laboratories and research traced the migration of the chemicals which were dumped in the Landfill in the decade after world War ii and drafted Tho recommendation to evacuate. For Many of Vas woman who once lived there and said their lives had revolved around boing housewives and not advocates. The angor i in Felt and the children s illnesses they traced to love canal remain the catalyst that altered their roles mrs. Hale Lor instance still belongs to the love canal homeowners association even though her family Long ago sold their Home and moved to a neighbouring county. I was belly Crocker living on 99lh Streel said the 38-year-old Hale who is now a paralegal with an environmental Law firm. Then love canal hit. And if you gel a meal at my House you re Lucky. Ii you step out of the Shower and find a clean Sowol you re Lucky. Sign of occupancy in love canal which was nearly do sorted Aher aunt Tring chemical contamination. Somebody has to  another woman Lois Marie Gibbs led several housewives in taking two Federal environmental officials hostage in May 1980. Serving them sandwiches and cookies and demanding answers to heir questions. Gibbs has since moved to Washington where she founded the citizens Clearinghouse for hazardous wastes which she described ase grass roots environmental crisis  both women have traced illnesses and diseases in their children including tutors epilepsy and Bone weaknesses to the chemicals at love canal. Hale s daughter Lisa who was born in october 1978, has been treated for serious Calcium problems. There have been dozens of inquiries in the last decade into whether there wore abnormal health problems Al love canal bul they were conflicting and their has never been an official cause and effect finding that chemicals were blamed. One report was inconclusive in part because it said Given the Complex Milieu of chemical wastes deposited in the canal there is also the possibility of antagonistic. Additive or synergistic  that s lha Floreal contradiction of in  said the Niagara Falls mayor Michael o Laughlin. Aside from Iho initial warning to pregnant mothers and children he says no one would Ever officially say that it was unsafe to live there. But people were offered the Money to sell their houses and leave love canal residents were of Lorod an average of $35,000 for their Homes. While most people do leave in fright Here was no Lega requirement that they do so about 100 people . Mainly older people Wilh no children Al Home. The state has blocked any resale of empty Homes most of which Are now owned by the government until an Olli Cial decision on Hab Ilab in is made the decision on whether to Issue one is up to Axelrod at the new York slalom health department. Sam a Arrizzo who built his Blue ranch style House 33 years ago is one who did not leave. Sure Al first it was lonely when everybody left said Giarrizzo 63. Who was out culling the Lawn the other evening. Then i kind of got to Lika it. I gel up in the morning and instead of hearing some Man Yelling Al his Wile of a kid with a Boom Box i hear to teds chirping in the Trees and i see Deer running Down the  the clean up of love canal continues. The slate Depar Lenl of environmental conservation has erected a Barrier and Drain collection system around the perimeter of the 16 acres where the Hooker chemicals and plastics corp. Had dumped the waste. A school had been Buill on the former dump site but after the emergency was declared it was demolished. Caps of Clay and plastic membrane were placed atop the Landfill Sile which is Al the Southeast Edge of Lown. Still to come is a Large scale burning of the dioxin contaminated soil Laken from sewers and creeks. Last february a Federal judge ruled thai Tho Occidental chemical corp., which acquired Hooker is responsible Lor the clean up costs. Estimated to be around $250 million. In the meantime the slate s conservation department must contend with cleaning dozens of other Sites in the six westernmost counties of new York Long a Center of chemical manufacturing and Home to nearly a Quarter of Tho Siles on the state list of hazardous waste areas. The stars and stripes saturday sept